I realise yesterday's post about the rankings confused a few people so let me explain it again by using the new season calendar.
You will see the various cut off points when the list is revised. This happens three times during the coming season and once again at the end of it.
It's a two-year rolling list so players only keep the points they earned for the previous two years worth of tournaments at any given time, i.e. after this year's World Open the points earned in the 2008 Northern Ireland Trophy, Shanghai Masters and Grand Prix are taken off.
Here is the calendar for the coming season. The 20 counting tournaments are the World Championship, UK Championship, China Open, Shanghai Masters, World Open, Welsh Open, German Masters, the 12 Players Tour and European Players Tour events and the grand finals.
The full ranking points tariff breakdown is still to be decided.
2010
MAY
17 Apr – 3 May Betfred.com World Championship Crucible Theatre, Sheffield
CUT OFF DATE FOR SEEDING FOR SHANGHAI MASTERS AND WORLD OPEN
28-30 World Seniors Championship qualifiers Cue Club, Bradford
JUNE
2-6 Rundili 2010 World Snooker Wuxi Classic Wuxi, China
25-27 Players Tour Championship 1 (PTC1) Academy
JULY
9-11 Players Tour Championship 2 (PTC2) Academy
18-25 6 Red Championship Thailand
AUGUST
2-5 Shanghai Masters qualifiers Academy
6-8 Players Tour Championship (PTC3) Academy
14-16 Players Tour Championship (PTC4) Academy
21-24 World Open qualifiers Academy
27-29 Euro Players Tour Championship (EPTC 1) Germany
SEPTEMBER
2 Premier League
6-12 Shanghai Masters Shanghai
16 Premier League
18-26 World Open (formerly Grand Prix) SECC, Glasgow
30 Premier League
OCTOBER
1-3 Euro Players Tour Championship (EPTC 2) Europe
CUT OFF DATE FOR SEEDING FOR UK CHAMPIONSHIP AND THE MASTERS
7 Premier League
8-10 Players Tour Championship (PTC5) Academy
14 Premier League
15-17 Players Tour Championship (PTC 6) Academy
21 Premier League
22-24 Euro Players Tour Championship (EPTC 3) Frankfurt, Germany
28 Premier League
29-31 Euro Players Tour Championship (EPTC 4) Europe
NOVEMBER
4 Premier League
5-7 World Seniors Championship Cedar Court Hotel, Bradford
11 Premier League
12-14 Euro Players Tour Championship (EPTC 5) Hamm, Germany
13-20 Asian Games Guangzhou
18 Premier League
19-21 Euro Players Tour Championship (EPTC6) Halle, Germany
24 Nov – 1 Dec UK Championship qualifiers Academy
27-28 Premier League Finals Potters
DECEMBER
4-12 UK Championship Telford Int Centre
CUT OFF DATE FOR SEEDING FOR GERMAN MASTERS AND WELSH OPEN
14-17 German Masters qualifiers Academy
2011
JANUARY
3-6 Championship League
9-16 The Masters Wembley Arena
24-27 Championship League
28-30 Sky Shoot Out tbc
FEBRUARY
2-6 German Masters Berlin, Germany
8-11 Welsh Open qualifiers Academy
14-20 Welsh Open Wales
CUT OFF DATE FOR SEEDING FOR CHINA OPEN AND BETFRED.COM WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
24-27 China Open qualifiers Academy
28 – 3 Mar Championship League
MARCH
4-15 Betfred.com World Championship qualifiers Academy
17-20 Players Tour Championship Final tbc
21-24 Championship League
APRIL
28 March – 3 April China Open Beijing
APRIL/MAY
16 April – 2 May Betfred.com World Snooker Championship Crucible Theatre, Sheffield
11-31 May* Qualifying School Academy
37 comments:
this should ruffle a few feathers
thanks Dave - the draw for German Masters qualifying will be very last minute then!
Also do you know what they plan to do with starter points - both for those who joined the tour last year and this year. None of them will have earned points in those 2008 events but have traditionally been given starter points instead. What are the WSA proposing on this?
So the seedings for the Masters are not going to be decided on the results of the UK, the most serious tournament of the first half of the season....
Seems pretty straightforward to me-I don't what all the fuss is about.
Instead of the two year cycle changeing twice, it will now change 6 times.(3 times a season)
This means that the two year total at any given time will comprise 6 of these blocks, or groups of tournaments that occur between two consecutive cut offs.
Each time we reach a new cut off, the points from the most recent block is added, and the points from the oldest block is removed.
This means there is a constant 6 blocks or two years points in operation at any given time, but unlike the old system, you don't have to wait until the end of the season to receive the points. They will be added on after each cut off point.
Well, I think it would be better, if the seeding for The Masters was made according to the revision after the UK.
The UK is after all the biggest event in the first half of the season and it would be wrong, if a player gets into the provisional 16 after the UK, but wouldn't be seeded for The Masters.
But I understand the long time aim is to revise the list after every tournament and get enough events to be able to implement a one year rolling list. I hope we'll be there in 2 or 3 years.
The problem is though that they need to put tickets on sale for the Masters and people want to know who is playing when
There's a month between the end of the UK and the Masters isn't there?
20 days for qualifying school!
Do you know how that will work?
The Masters line-up should remain the same personnel who ended the previous season in the top 16. Then the Wildcard entries could consist of the highest current ranking. By current ranking I mean at the end of the UK.
Dave, u make the point about the Masters with people needing to know who is playing and when....
But with the World Championship, tickets usually go on sale early December when theres no way of knowing what the seedings and matches are, so why should the tickets for the Masters be any different?
Ok,as an example - Ding Junhui will have 40,975 starter points which get added to upto the
World Open - His current ranking
of number 5 is also his provisional
seeding in the meantime.
Ding is no longer provisional number 1 - But,as the revisions get updated through the season,
it becomes more beneficial to him
(as he had a mediocre 2008/2009)
Presumbaly the new tour pros will get 11,700 starter points instead of 5,850.
If Ding progresses from 40,975
upto say 55,000 pts after World Open - he then gets a revised
2 year starter pts allocation
for the next few events - which might be say 43,000 pts which then gets added to,upto & including
the UK Championships.
I think I understand it.
But,you still have your end of season official ranking list
to determine the provisional seedings for the start of next season & promotion/relegation with
Q-School for new main tour places.
Sorted ! (I think)
Haha, I can't believe people are focussing on the UK and qualification for the Masters! It's already so much better than it was, stop moaning ferchrissakes and rejoice! We don't know who will be the top 16 for the Masters yet, nor do we know who has won the automatic Crucible spots. It's great isn't it?!
Incidentally, it would be nice if the Masters was top 16 and no wildcards wouldn't it? I don't see a qualification event for a wildcard anyway...
A lot of national associations will have a few headaches this year with the calender the way it is.
Dont get me wrong I love the fact the players have more events or are being made to play more events.
However take Ireland for example, our Irish championships is always played over two weekends in May. This will now have to come forward to finish before the 11th May so we know who our No.1 is and enable our players to compete in both.
A lot of calenders will now have to fit around this and national seasons might now be more condensed.
>>Well, I think it would be better, if the seeding for The Masters was made according to the revision after the UK.
Don't forget about wildcards!
witz - The Crucible will pretty much sell out whenever the tickets go on sale
I'd imagine World Snooker would want a little longer to sell tickets for the more cavernous Wembley Arena
I had heard Hearn was thinking of moving from Wembley. I kind of support this new system, although I'm not sure it makes things more clearer for a wider snooker audience.
What Happens though if Higgins has the ban lifted at say the UK Championship, will he have a protected ranking, or as I would imagine, just hope that he is in the top 16 still when he returns.
I actually thought at one point everyone was going to start on zero points!!
Chrisk5-
Ding will start the season as no 5 and will be seeded number 5 until after the world open.
After the WO his points gained this season will be added to his total.
The points he had from the start of the 2008-09 season until the grand prix will be eliminated.
Yes, the players who performed badly then and do well now will benefit and vice versa.
Thats the way we want it, isn't it, with current form being rewarded.
Jamie - If the 2 year list turns out to be everybody's starter allocation - then John Higgins
has a near 10,000 pts advantage
over his nearest rivals.
He would have an outside chance of
being eligible for the Masters -
even if he were absent from most or all events in the months ahead !
Dave,
thats true, does that mean then that the Crucible tickets wont be on sale then until the seedings are known after the Welsh Open as they will sell out anyway or did u mean that even selling them in December when no-one knows who they will be wathcing wont affect the sales?
ChrisK5
As far as the tour newcomers go, id imagine they will be given the points that the 64th man last years 64th place man Paul Davies did (12,253)
Of course, Paul will instantly lose his points earned in the Shanghai Masters and Grand Prix of the 2008/09 season.
For the tour newcomers id imagine some sort of proportional pro-rata of their total starter points will be deducted and they will then chase the new points.
Will be a bit unfair on the tour newcomers as because its a 2 year rolling ranking and not a 1 year system, they will still be carrying the burden of the minimum starter points with them into next season, so yet again will have to excel to progress up the rankings.
At least if they get into the top 64 they will straight away be thrust into the next ladder of qualifiers rather than being stuck on the bottom rung all season.
Hopefully eventually a one year rollinmg ranking system will be employed.
It will be interesting to see how they handle the cut-offs - the World Open is in September while the Grand Prix was in October so technically the Grand Prix points from two years ago should stay on the list when it is revised after the World Open, because it falls within the 2 year period.
I like the Masters, it's a sort of best-of-the-best tournament and the rolling rankings are going to make the line-up kind of arbitrary. Maybe they could change the criteria to the last 16 players to win tournaments or something, at least then it would live up to its name.
Dave,
That isn't true about the world championships selling out. Final and quarter finals sell out. U can get tickets for early sessions of the semis.
As for the rest (1st/2nd round games), bar matches involving O'Sullivan and possibly eithers (depending on who they're playing,) these games NEVER sell out.
The Crucible website had tickets on offer all the time for the first week. It's a huge myth about the world championships selling out - they don't! no different to early rounds of other competitions.
Thanks, joe
I like it and that is what counts.
I can't imagine the players who fail to see the logic in this change of the system.
Remember Rodney Walker whenever we hear whining about Hearns' wrongdoings.
Witz-
Paul Davies won't lose any points until AFTER the world open.
By then he will have had a chance to defend the points he will be surrendering.
It is becoming clear that the
two-year rolling list has been implemented to 'soften the blow'
of the new provisional seedings.
It is a compromised fudge of sorts.
I agree with Witz 78 that a
one-year rolling list with
updated provisional seedings would have been more radical & the
more progressive option.
Kildare Cueman - Current form will get rewarded for a more favourable
draw/entry into events - I agree with that aspect very much.
However,for tour newcomers,the
2 year list makes it tougher to stay in the top 64 for next May.
So tour newcomers have to participate in alot of PTC events,
to avoid this eventuality.
Everyone's a winner !
The national, international and pro am calendars are already providing major headaches!
Nice headaches to have but buy lots of tippex, you may need it if you're an event planner!
Already we need to know the proposed start date for 2011-12 season so that NGBs and International bodies can plan ahead and ensure they've completed all events in good time.
In an ideal world everyone would finish before the Q School but that would mean the European Assoc trying to find some dates to bring forward the Euro Champs by over a month, which will cause all sorts of problems.
My advice to any NGB doing calendar planning at the moment is to try and bring your calendar forward to start in at least August this year so that there's not going to be so much congestion in April and May next year, and not least the calls on the players' time and money.
Countries like England, Wales, Ireland etc who will still have a main tour place, really need to resolve all their events before the closing date for Q School entries. A player will be pretty *** off if they pay money to enter Q School only to end up as their countries Number One or Champion and an MT place secured.
The same applies to Asian, Europe, Oceania, IBSF etc who have nomination places.
Hopefully WSA have now finished jiggling around with the dates.
I know of one event organiser who's already changed dates three times because of the WSA calendar.
so is the first rankings update actually after the euro tour championship and not the world open is that right?.
The rankings could be up-in-the-air if John Higgins matches are all nullified.
Excellent point raised by the second anonymous poster regarding the starter points, I was wondering about that myself today too.
Joe, I didn't say the Crucible was always an absolute sell out, I said you could 'pretty much sell it out,' which is true because the vast majority of World Championship tickets are bought in advance of the tournament
Some tickets get returned, hence they are available during the tournament
with respect does it matter about amateur calenders they now have more opportunity if they want to chose play amateur events or enter pro events so amateur players are on to a win win.
hi dave,
point taken. and am only going on the last one in sheffield.
seats that weren't taken were available in most matches. they hadn't been booked at all i presume.
thanks, joe
re starter points I think we will have to wait till the WSA release some details themselves for it to be clarified
So, the seedings have already been done for Shanghai Masters and World Open?
And is John Higgins in it?
It's great that the rankings are finally being overhauled, it is long overdue! However, one age old anomaly remains: points are earned over 2 years, whilst promotion/relegation takes place every season!
So what happens to the following players: Tony Drago, Bjorn Haneveer, Jimmy Robertson, Michael White, James Wattana, Anda Zhang, Ben Woollaston & Joe Jogia.....who all kept their tour places after successful 2009-10 seasons, but have NO points from the counting events for 2008-9 which will be included in Octobers new ranking list?
Also, what will happen to this group of players: Paul Davison, Jamie Jones, Liu Chuang, Kuldesh Johal, James McBain & Andrew Pagett who are promoted to the tour this season (and therefore have NO points from the 2009-10 season to count), but who ALL HAVE POINTS from the last five events of the 2008-9 season?? Will their points be included?
As far as I can see, either we have a one year rolling list, or we stop restricting points to the 96 tour players, because any "starting points" formula is going to prove a headache!
David, do you know if there will be any TV coverage of the new events?
I hope Perform buy the Players Tour Championship
They won't be on TV but there's a good chance the later events will be streamed on the web
@ Janie Watkins - tippex? get with the program grandma.
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